India Accuses British Rohingya Man as Al-Qaeda Terror Group Operative

A British Rohingya man has been charged with helping the al-Qaeda extremist group build its base in the Indian sub-continent, according to a charge sheet drawn up by India’s top counter terror agency.

Suspect Samiun Rahman, 28, fought for al-Qaeda in Syria, then travelled to Bangladesh and India to recruit people to fight against alleged atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims by Buddhist-majority Myanmar, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said in a charge sheet made public on Wednesday.

Rahman served three years in prison in Bangladesh on related charges there before entering India in July 2017. He was arrested in New Delhi in September last year.

“After detailed investigation of Rahman’s online chats on several mobile applications and documents recovered from his laptop, it was revealed that he fought against the Syrian army from an al-Qaeda base in Syria. He was then sent to Bangladesh due to his knowledge of the local language and was assigned the task of establishing an al-Qaeda base in the Indian sub-continent,” the NIA alleged.

Rahman had served time in a London jail for a traffic violation before his first trip to Syria, the charge sheet said.

“After his release, he went to Syria for the first time to help refugees and returned to London after almost two months. In 2013, he again went to Syria and subsequently, after establishing contact with an al-Qaeda operative, he traveled to Bangladesh to radicalize youths,” the NIA said.

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